F365 Features

Think that the infamous F365 Forum is all about strange men arguing over The Simpsons? Well, it's not quite all. The Forum also has given birth to a number of footy-playing teams and its own tournament...

Saturday lunchtime saw a very special day on the outskirts of Birmingham as two matched souls enjoyed their first moments of marital bliss in an idyllic location - invaded by over 80 lads from the Football365 Forum as they held the 2nd Annual Rule 1 Tournament.

In the past few years there have been several teams that have come together as a result of the forum: some who meet up semi-regularly for a friendly five-a-side game, some now involved in 5/6/7 a side leagues and even some who have stepped up to 11-a-side games from up and down the UK.

On Saturday 11 of these teams got together, along with a 12th "Romany" team made up of people who wanted a game but couldn't find a team. Thanks to Rule 1 Cardiff's attendance this could (very loosely) be described as an international affair!

The tournament organisers had decided that each player should be dead from exhaustion at the end of it, so had scheduled 11 rounds of games for each team (i.e. everyone playing everyone else) and the team with the best record at the end would take the award. A simple enough scenario one would think...

The levels of ability/seriousness ranged from teams buying new strips for the tournament (Southampton), to teams that brought a mish-mash of similar coloured tops (Reading) to teams that had come along with bottles of cider (Sheffield) or even pre-made mojitos and Pimms (London)! And then there was a proper 11s team in 'Britons Protection Football Club', a pub team from Manchester made up predominantly from forummers.

To the actual football itself...Conditions ranged from bright sunshine to torrential rain and the winners award was just as confusing as Rule One Romany were announced as the winners at first, then while they were celebrating, the organisers did a recount and realised that the real winners were Rule 1 Ramble. Fortunately the Romany team were decent sports and (begrudgingly) handed their medals back so a second (more correct) presentation could be made!

The rest of the awards are summised below:

Top Scorer: Sebastian Changuia (16 goals) (BPFC)

Wooden Spoon: Rule 1 Sheffield (2pts)

Most OTT celebration: Rule 1 Reading's celebration of their first goal of the tournament several games in/ Farcelona's run halfway onto the next pitch for Birmingham.

Drunkest Team: Rule 1 London (who also took an ambassadorial award for making friends with the kids on the nearby pitches and encouraging them to cheer!)

All in all, everyone had a great time and Walkabout will testify to the fact that everyone was relatively "refreshed" after the tournament had finished! We're all looking forward to next year now!

Special thanks go to Farcelona, D-Fekt and Insanity for their organisation of the event. And to acairns and Particleman for helping out lots with the presentation and clean up operation. In fact to everyone from Brum A, Brum B, Brum C, BPFC, North, Sheffield, Reading, Cardiff, London, Southampton, Ramble and Romany thanks for making it great.

Oh and to the ladies of Birmingham for apparently doing their bit for the credit crunch by not wearing too many clothes!

As told by 'KingGman' of Rule One Reading

If you'd like to join the Forum, and one of the Rule One teams, come this way...